**5. Conclusions**

The results of this study are intriguing and appear to provide strong directions for future studies. Finding 200 genes that met the dual cut-off criteria, and distinctive patterns of expression that appear to align with predictions from past research, provides a plausible framework. Many of the differentially expressed genes have previously demonstrated connections to stress effects, including to specific diseases related to stress. Although the possibility exists that the group differences are due to variables other than meditation practice, none of the data collected appear to shed light on this question. In addition to a future replication using RNA-seq, a larger *N*, and a larger sample of genes for validation, studies will be pursued on genes such as *SOCS3*, *AHSP*, and *CXCL10* that showed robust differences and have important functional implications.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/1010-660 X/57/3/218/s1, Table S1: Primary Sequences for qPCR Reactions, Table S2: Differentially Expressed Genes and Loci, Figure S1: Network 3 (p-score 18): Cellular movement, immune cell trafficking, hematologic system development and function, Figure S2: Network 4 (p-score 17): Cellular function and maintenance, hematologic system development and function, and infectious disease, Figure S3: Network 5 (p-score 15): Cell cycle, cancer, organ morphology.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.W., K.G.W. and F.T.T.; methodology, S.W., M.S., J.F. and K.G.W.; validation, J.F., K.G.W., and M.S.; formal analysis, S.K., C.L.D., S.W., K.G.W. and J.F.; investigation, S.W., S.K., K.G.W. and J.F.; resources, F.T.T. and M.S.; data curation, C.L.D., S.W. and J.F.; writing—original draft preparation, S.W., K.G.W. and J.F.; writing—review and editing, K.G.W., S.W., J.F. and F.T.T.; visualization, K.G.W. and S.W.; supervision, J.F., K.G.W., M.S., F.T.T., R.K.W., P.M., N.K.L., G.S. and J.S.; project administration, S.W., F.T.T. and K.G.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Maharishi International University (Project Identification Code: 06012010W) completed on 1 June 2010.

**Informed Consent Statement:** All participants gave written informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Processed raw data from the microarray experiment have been deposited in the ArrayExpress database at EMBL-EBI and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/experiments/E-MTAB-10252, accessed on 23 March 2021.

**Acknowledgments:** This study represents partial fulfillment of doctoral degree requirements in physiology and health at Maharishi International University (S.W.). We thank the staff of the Center for Prostate Disease Research, Rockville, Maryland, and Shiv Srivastava, Scientific Director, for use of their facilities and for assistance in RNA extraction.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. Neither Maharishi International University nor its faculty has financial ties to Maharishi Foundation, the non-profit educational body overseeing instruction in the Transcendental Meditation technique and its related programs.
